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“The days of majority administrations are over and it is the responsibility of political groups to realise that working groups are the future.

“If Audit Scotland highlight the lack of collegiate working in their findings, it will only demonstrate to the public that North Lanarkshire Council is not politically mature enough to deal with party differences when working alongside each other.

“At present, there seems to be only one political group unwilling to work alongside others.

“As Conservative group leader, I was really disappointed with the negative attitude of the SNP last year.

“This was a prime opportunity for the largest opposition group to represent their constituents by taking part in Budget Sounding Board.

“I must stress that the Sounding Board does not build the foundation of a budget but allows discussion between officers and political groups regarding tough decisions. If the SNP do not commit to a working group, it will demonstrate a clear lack of respect for this council and the electorate.

“ I now call on David Stocks and his group to commit to this year’s Budget Sounding Board and to put playground politics behind them. Time will tell if they are up to the task.”

Following a recent meeting with Audit Scotland regarding North Lanarkshire Council’s upcoming “Best Value” review, it was highlighted that there was a need for political groups to work collegiately when being briefed by officers on council budgets, particularly when a minority administration is in office.

The “Best Value” review is an audit of the whole council process and will take place later this year.

SNP group leader David Stocks said: “Once again we have Meghan Gallacher and the other Tories issuing a press statement trying to tell the SNP what to do. This time it concerns the budget process.

“The SNP group will decide how we take part in the budget talks and we will certainly not be taking any advice from the Tories.

“Last year, after speaking to the assistant chief executives and senior managers, the SNP group produced a budget which was complimented by a great number of people and contained items which the other members of the council could have agreed to, if they wished to do so.

“As for Councillor Gallacher’s comment on collegiate working, there have been a number of occasions when the SNP have worked well with the other groups in the past year, and in fact had it not been for our group voting with Labour, the very popular Club 365 may not have happened as the Tories voted against.

“Finally, Councillor Gallacher has a cheek talking about the SNP Group having no respect for the public, after the way her party have treated the poorer people in our society over the years.”